Gallant Bess

Tex Barton, a sixteen-year-old orphan, is struggling to establish a stock farm with Bess as a nucleus. He is persuaded to enlist in the Seabees and is in camp when he receives word that Bess is in difficulties. His leave is delayed and shortly after he reaches home, Bess perishes. He is an embittered young man as he sails for service in the Pacific.
On an island, retaken from the Japanese, he discovers an injured mare, remarkably like Bess, and nurses her back to health. Later, Tex is wounded by a Japanese sniper and the mare brings him back from the jungle to receive aid. In time, orders come for him to be evcuated to the United States. It looks as though he and the horse would be separated. But he is confident that they will not, and eventually his confidence is rewarded, thought not quite in the way he expected.